UP Assembly Elections: 56.13% turnout registered; Akhilesh dismisses surveys showing BJP ahead

Uttar Pradesh, which witnessed the seventh and last phase of the crucial Assembly elections on Monday, registered a 56.13 per cent voter turnout.While the BJP won in Uttar Pradesh with a sweeping mandate in 2017, this election is expected to be a referendum on the government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.Check LIVE Updates on Exit Poll Results 2022 hereThis phase saw 613 candidates fight over 54 Assembly seats. Voting started at 7 am and ended at 4 pm in Chakia (Chandauli), Robertsganj and Duddhi (Sonbhadra) seats while in the rest of the segments, it continued till 6 pm. The districts where polls were held in this phase are Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra.The highest votes were polled in Chandauli with 61.99 per cent, followed by Varanasi (58.80), Sonbhadra (58.69), Mau (57.02), Ghazipur (55.88), Mirzapur (54.93), Bhadohi (54.26), Jaunpur (53.85), and Azamgarh (53.79).SecurityOver 60,000 police personnel and 845 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) were deployed in this phase.As per the instructions of the Election Commission, all 12,205 polling stations were covered by the CAPF. For the seventh phase, Uttar Pradesh received 845 companies of CAPF.Around 778 companies were engaged for booth duty and six companies for EVM security duty. The others were assigned law and order duties, and postings on international and inter-state barriers, according to a statement.ComplaintsDuring the polling the Samajwadi party lodged several complains to the ECI ranging from fake votes being cast in Jaunpur and Mau to EVM malfunctioning in Sagri Assembly constituency to booth capturing in Jaunpur.Fates at stakeThe polling will decide the electoral fate of some ministers in Yogi Adityanath government. They include Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi North), Neelkanth Tiwari (Varanasi South) and Rama Shankar Singh Patel (Madihan).Arvind Rajbhar of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party is up against Transport Minister Anil Rajbhar in the Shivpur seat.Former minister Dara Singh Chauhan, who had joined Samajwadi Party after leaving BJP, is in the fray from Ghosi seat of Mau district.Alka Rai, the sitting MLA wife of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, is in the fray from Mohammadabad seat of Ghazipur district.Former BJP MP Krishna Pratap Singh is contesting on the Malhni seat of Jaunpur. Lucky Yadav is Samajwadi Party candidate from the seat.On Mau Sadar seat, don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's son Abbas Ansari is contesting on SP ticket. In Shahganj in Jaunpur district, the Samajwadi Party has fielded sitting MLA Shailendra Yadav Lalai.Caste calculusThis year the SP has tied up with a whole bouquet of parties in an attempt to woo voters beyond their core support base — the Muslims and the Yadavs. It has forged an alliance the SBSP, Mahan Dal led by Keshav Dev Maurya, Janwadi Party (Socialist) led by Sanjay Singh Chauhan, Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), Apna Dal-Kamerawadi led by Union Minister Anupriya Patel’s mother Krishna Patel, apart from the RLD in western UP.The Rajbhars comprise around three to four per cent of UP’s population, concentrated in the Purvanchal region. The SP, which has been talking about the SBSP drawing other OBC sub-castes as well, has given the party as many as 17 seats, most of them in eastern UP.Meanwhile, apart from the Brahmins, the BJP is hoping to get Patel votes, through ally Apna Dal (S), Maurya votes after deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya pitched in, and the Dalit votes because of the free ration during the pandemic.Exit PollExit polls will be released this evening for the five states that went to polls — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur.Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday, however, dismissed pre-poll surveys that showed that the BJP had the edge in Uttar Pradesh elections. He said, "Let them show whatever they have got. We are winning with a majority," he said, dismissing predictions earlier on some TV channels.The state has 403 Assembly seats and the results of the elections will be declared on 10 March.Click here to know more about Assembly Elections 2022Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.